FactWatch Hosts Workshop on the Basics of Fact-checking and Combating Misinformation

“Fact-Checking Basics: A Beginner’s Workshop on Combating Misinformation” is a hands-on training program established by FactWatch with the intent to empower young students and journalists with basic fact-checking skills. Funded by the Asia Foundation, the training program involves a series of six workshops conducted by the FactWatch team. The first workshop of this series took place on 11^th August 2022 at the ULAB Research Building in Dhanmondi, Dhaka.

This full-day workshop was divided into four modules which were designed to provide a basic understanding of the pattern of misinformation and fact-checking in digital cyberspace, for students and journalists. In this interactive workshop, the participants directly learned from both highly knowledgable experts in media and information literacy and professional fact-checkers.

The workshop delved into the prevalence of misinformation in social media in today’s times, and how a fact-checker can utilize the right tools in combating this spread and ensure a safer, rumor-free internet. The modules were facilitated by Prof. Sumon Rahman, Apon Das, Shuvashish Das Ray Dip, and Rahul Roy, all members of the experienced FactWatch team.

For this first workshop, FactWatch selected 40 participants from more than a hundred interested respondents. The participants enthusiastically participated in the modules and shared their thoughts, ideas, and concerns, allowing for a constructive learning experience based on many real-life examples. Not only did the workshop provide an integrated learning environment for capacity building and skill development, but also provided participants with the opportunity to network with both professional journalists and interested fact-checkers.

Under this training program, five more workshops are scheduled to take place in the upcoming months, with the next workshop tentatively scheduled for 24^th September 2022. FactWatch wishes to empower and engage at least 300 young fact-checking hopefuls with the knowledge and capability of combating misinformation.